Report: Fox is 'definitely planning' to make Fantastic Four 2

(Image credit: Facebook.com/Fantastic Four)

published 11 August 2015

By every conceivable metric, Fantastic Four is an embarrassing failure. It was savaged by critics. It flopped hard at the box office. And the intrepid theatergoers who did venture out to see it awarded it a dismal C- CinemaScore.

But despite every possible indication that the universe just isn't interested in more Fantastic Four, 20th Century Fox is reportedly prepping a sequel anyway. Citing inside sources, HitFix's Drew McWeeny says Fox is "definitely planning" to move ahead with Fantastic Four 2, which was slated for a June 2017 release date months before the first movie arrived — though there's virtually no chance that director Josh Trank will be invited to return.

How do you convince audiences to show up for a sequel to a movie they didn't like in the first place? "The next filmmaker in is going to start from a difficult position, and they're going to have to work hard to create their own movie while starting with some of Trank's choices intact," says McWeeny. "For better or worse, Trank was given room to define these characters, and his signature will remain on the next film no matter who writes and directs it. The next movie will be a reaction to this one."

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Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.

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